Mansfield Lovell

Mansfield Lovell (20 October 1822-1 June 1884) was a Major-General of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Lovell was well known for his failed defense of New Orleans, Louisiana from the Union in 1862.

Biography
Mansfield Lovell was born in Washington DC, United States on 20 October 1822, the son of US Army Surgeon General Joseph Lovell. Lovell graduated from West Point in 1842 and became a Second Lieutenant in the US artillery, fighting at Chapultepec during the Mexican-American War and rising to the rank of captain. Lovell worked as deputy street commissioner in New York City before the American Civil War broke out, and he became a Major-General on 7 October 1861. Lovell was posted to command New Orleans, Louisiana, but he did not have sufficient materiel to repel the Union forces when they descended upon the city in 1862. Lovell lost the city, and he was also defeated at Corinth on 4 October 1862 while leading a division under Earl Van Dorn. Lovell was relieved of command after these failures and did not hold another command for the rest of the war, and a tidal wave destroyed his rice plantation in Georgia. Lovell resumed his career as a surveyor and engineer, and he cleared obstructions from the East River at Hell Gate, near Randalls and Wards Islands in New York. He died in New York in 1884 at the age of 61 and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.